homeowner vs association: round 9,735
Both local and national news outlets have been jumping all over the story of Stacey Kelley, the Westchase resident who refuses to remove the “Support our Troops” sign in her lawn. As you know by now, any sign displayed on the front lawn is an infraction of community regulations.
Not surprisingly the slant of a lot of the coverage leans heavily towards Mrs. Kelley - wife of a soldier, little man vs. faceless corporation, free speech, blah blah blah.
The position of the homeowner’s association is that the sign is in violation of rules Stacey agreed to when she purchased the home. Her defense: she was 19 at the time she co-signed, and she didn’t understand what the rules meant.
(Incidentally I am very upset that I didn’t think of that line or reasoning when I was pulled over. But officer, I was so young when I got my license - I was too dumb to know speeding is illegal.)
Nice try.
One of the Kelley’s neighbors offers this defense:
“Our country was founded on not obeying the rules,” she said. “We are a nation at war. Maybe “at war’ means not all the rules apply.”
That sounds less like a defense of the sign and more like a defense of possible rule-breaking of a more presidential scale.
Take away the troops angle and you have just another case of people who probably just need to move somewhere else. Free speech is one thing, but that community organization has every bit the same right to expect compliance to rules agreed to in a legal agreement. And the courts have consistently upheld the associations’ binding documents.
And before anyone starts to whine about these rules, deed-restricted communities are everywhere for a reason - everyone wants them. Plenty of people seem to have no problem prioritizing property values over the right to put a sign in their yard.
There’s nothing wrong with that choice, but if you aren’t prepared to live with it and want to bend the rules this way and that, you run the risk of someone going on Good Morning America to defend their right to decorate their lawn with pink flamingos and cars on blocks.
Tags: citizens, display, media, paying rent, tampa
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March 15th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
what ever happened to tying a yellow ribbon around a tree to show support for troops?
I thought Howard Troxler presented this case very well in the Times the other day — those who support Mrs. Kelly may very well deem this an attack on the troops and all the spin we’ve seen since 9-11…. “I don’t support the war” “YOU HATE AMERICA!!!” “I want the troops brought home.” “YOU ARE DESTROYING TROOP MORALE BY DOUBTING TE WAR!!!”
You know, the lack-of-moderation on the argument… Absolutes alone.
March 15th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
This stubborness of hers smacks of pride, but I do admit I love thinking of those HOA weenies in a tizzy about their precious rules. It looks like the owner of the house is actually the mother, I wonder why the HOA is even dealing with the daughter?
March 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
entertaining, indeed.
March 15th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
I thought the Trib’s interview of SOCOM Commander Gen Brown said it all. He would not reveal the name of his son-in-law, also a Special Forces officer, who was wounded and has since returned to the war. Why not? Because the young man is not seeking the spot light, he is what every SF soldier aspires to be, a “quiet professional.”
The old Army wife skeptical part of me says Mrs. Casey should have stayed at Ft. Carson where her husband’s unit is based. She’d have plenty of opportunities to show her support for him, his unit, and the entire unit family there instead of waiting for her invitations to be on TV. (The truly snarky part of me wonders why her husband is still a Private, but I don’t want to belittle the service of Privates. I was one once.) I hope the HOA doesn’t cave. I also hope Private Casey read his enlistment contract.
March 15th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
OOPS I meant PVT and Mrs. Kelley, not Casey, in the above.
March 15th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
I hate HOAs. I can’t wait for when the history posts here at Sticks read 20 years from now … April 10, 2012, the last HOA breathed its last breath … and died.
April 7th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
[...] Stephanie Hayes with the Times reports that Jason Jones with Comedy Central’s Daily Show fake news team was in town to report on the ruckus in Westchase. He spoke to both the president of the association Daryl Manning, as well as the reckless sign owner Stacey Kelley. I can’t wait to see it but I really hope the story was simply misquoting Stacey Kelley when it claims she said , “I knew to word my words correctly.” [...]
May 25th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
FTHOA!!!!
Since when did Americans lie down and start taking this Crap?
Yeah, CRAP.
I, through Nevada legislation, have been forced to live in an HOA. They passed legislation in 2000, requiring “exterior” landscape for the “benefit” of the community. The developer has three choices
1. City or county maintain the Landscaping, (newsflash they don’t want it and it would cost more anyway)
2. A landscape Association (makes perfect sense, but then there would be no “RULES” save for keeping the external landscape beautiful
3. AN HOA, where they put language in to protect the “Developer” against Costruction defect lawsuits and other BS.
So, here I am “stuck in the middle with you”
I HATE HOAs. They are the first step towards true communism in America.
Something is going to have to be done.
I am fighting my board right now.
Will you fight yours or just bitch about it?
Personal Rights are WAY more important than Property Values.
Who ever said that the price of a Home is a function of HOAs? I thought it was simple economics, supply and demand.
Again, I HATE HOAS.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
[...] of letting everyone be unique. Houses look the same, no cars in the drive, keep your grass green, no signs in the yard, no painting your house, etc. Oh, and whatever arbitrary rules the association dreams [...]